Japanese death toll reaches 56
Rescue workers in Japan say the death toll from today's commuter train crash has now increased 56.
The packed train derailed in western Japan today and hurtled into an apartment complex, killing 56 people and injuring more than 417 others in the deadliest Japanese rail accident in four decades.
Investigators are focusing on whether excessive speed or the actions of the inexperienced, 23-year-old driver caused the crash in an urban area near Amagasaki, about 250 miles west of Tokyo.
Several passengers speculated that the driver may have been speeding to make up for lost time after overshooting the previous station, forcing him to back up to let off passengers.
Floodlights were trained on one of the worst-damaged cars as rescuers tried to free people still alive in the wreckage more than 11 hours after the crash, said Yoshiki Nishiyama of the Amagasaki fire department.
The seven-car commuter train was carrying 580 passengers when it derailed, wrecking a car in its path before slamming into a nine-storey apartment complex just metres away.
Two of the five derailed cars were flattened against the wall of the building, and hundreds of rescue workers and police swarmed the wreckage and tended to the injured.
“There was a violent shaking, and the next moment I was thrown to the floor … and I landed on top of a pile of other people,” passenger Tatsuya Akashi told public TV network NHK. “I didn’t know what happened, and there were many people bleeding.”
The accident was the worst rail disaster in nearly 42 years in safety-conscious Japan, which is home to one of the world’s most complex, efficient and heavily travelled rail networks. A three-train crash in November 1963 killed 161 people in Tsurumi, outside Tokyo.
“There are many theories but we don’t know for sure what caused the accident,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said. “The prime minister instructed us to respond with urgency.”
Survivors said the force of the derailment sent passengers tumbling. Photos taken by an NHK reporter aboard the train showed passengers piled on the floor and some clawing to escape.
Two derailed train cars smashed into the first-floor parking garage of the apartment complex, NHK said.
A crew member aboard told police later he “felt the train was going faster than usual,” NHK said, echoing comments from survivors interviewed by the network who speculated that the driver was attempting to make up for lost time after overrunning a stop line at the previous station.
Murakami later said investigators had found scrapes and other evidence of rocks on the tracks. But he said it was too early to say whether that was a factor in the crash.
